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Content Published January 16, 2021

Independence Hall

Independence Hall touts a red brick facade, designed in Georgian style. It consists of a central building with belltower and steeple, attached to two smaller wings via arcaded hyphens. The highest point to the tip of the steeple spire is 168 feet 7 1⁄4 inches (51.391 m) above the ground.

The State House was built between 1732 and 1753, designed by Edmund Woolley and Andrew Hamilton, and built by Woolley. Its construction was commissioned by the Pennsylvania colonial legislature which paid for construction as funds were available, so it was finished piecemeal. It was initially inhabited by the colonial government of Pennsylvania as its State House, from 1732 to 1799.

In 1752, when Isaac Norris was selecting a man to build the first clock for the State House, today known as Independence Hall, he chose Thomas Stretch, the son of Peter Stretch his old friend and fellow council member, to do the job. In 1753 Stretch erected a giant clock at the building's west end that resembled a tall clock (grandfather clock). The 40-foot-tall (12 m) limestone base was capped with a 14-foot (4.3 m) wooden case surrounding the clock's face, which was carved by Samuel Harding. The giant clock was removed about 1830. The clock's dials were mounted at the east and west ends of the main building connected by rods to the clock movement in the middle of the building. A new clock was designed and installed by Isaiah Lukens in 1828. The Lukens clock ran consecutively for eight days, "with four copper dials on each side that measured eight feet in diameter and clockworks that ensured sufficient power to strike the four-thousand pound bell made by John Wilbank." The Lukens clock remained in Independence Hall until 1877.

The acquisition of the original clock and bell by the Pennsylvania Colonial Assembly is closely related to the acquisition of the Liberty Bell. By mid-1753, the clock had been installed in the State House attic, but six years were to elapse before Thomas Stretch received any pay for it. (wwikipedia)

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Content Published November 12, 2020

John Barry

John Barry (March 25, 1745 – September 13, 1803) was an Irish-American officer in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War and later in the United States Navy. He has been credited as "The Father of the American Navy" (and shares that moniker with John Paul Jones, and John Adams) and was appointed a captain in the Continental Navy on December 7, 1775. He was the first captain placed in command of a U.S. warship commissioned for service under the Continental flag.

After the war, he became the first commissioned U.S. naval officer, at the rank of commodore, receiving his commission from President George Washington in 1797.

This bronze statue of John Barry (1745-1803) in Independence Square was sculpted by Samuel Murray (1869-1941), the artist who produced the statue of George Washington in front of Independence Hall. The statue was commissioned by the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of Philadelphia, who then donated the statue to the City. The piece was modeled by Murray, probably in Philadelphia, in 1906. It was cast by the Roman Bronze Works of Brooklyn, NY. The pedestal was built by the Harrison Granite Co. of Barre, VT. A crowd of 15,000 witnessed the unveiling of the statue on March 16, 1907. A number of details are known about Samuel Murray's execution of the sculpture of John Barry. Murray generally worked from life or used photographs or earlier portraits. In both cases, he first modeled a nude figure to establish the anatomy correctly. Before modeling John Barry, Murray studied Gilbert Stuart's painting of Barry and had a friend pose in Barry's own Revolutionary War uniform. George Washington (ca. 1910; north of Independence Hall), Dr. Joseph· Leidy (1907; Academy of Natural Sciences), and-Rev. Corby (1910; Gettysburg battlefield) are other sculptures by Murray.

A few changes were made to the piece shortly after it was dedicated. In 1912, a bronze tablet was added to the north side of the pedestal, as the inscription cut in the stone was illegible from a distance. In 1913, Samuel Murray repaired a finger on the vandalized statue. In 1915, a change in the grading of the base of the statue was approved by the Art Commission.

(wikipedia, nps.gov)

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Content Published October 25, 2020

Independence Hall's Clock

In 1752, when Isaac Norris was selecting a man to build the first clock for the State House, today known as Independence Hall, he chose Thomas Stretch, the son of Peter Stretch his old friend and fellow council member, to do the job.

In 1753 Stretch erected a giant clock at the building's west end that resembled a tall clock (grandfather clock). The 40-foot-tall (12 m) limestone base was capped with a 14-foot (4.3 m) wooden case surrounding the clock's face, which was carved by Samuel Harding. The giant clock was removed about 1830. The clock's dials were mounted at the east and west ends of the main building connected by rods to the clock movement in the middle of the building. A new clock was designed and installed by Isaiah Lukens in 1828. The Lukens clock ran consecutively for eight days, "with four copper dials on each side that measured eight feet in diameter and clockworks that ensured sufficient power to strike the four-thousand pound bell made by John Wilbank." The Lukens clock remained in Independence Hall until 1877.

By mid-1753, the clock had been installed in the State House attic, but six years were to elapse before Thomas Stretch received any pay for it.

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Content Published October 24, 2020

Cozy under trees

A tree’s growth is based, in part, on competition from its neighbors. Its first priority is to gain access to the sun, and in a forest up is the only way to go.

But this explains why a tree grows tall, not how. How tall a tree will grow is dictated partly by its genes. A tree’s height is also dictated by environmental conditions. Most trees are capable of being taller than they actually are, they’re just limited by deficiencies in light, water, or nutrients.

The tallest trees on the planet are coast redwoods. why? It comes down to water – not so much water supply, but the physics of moving water. We all know trees need water and that it comes from the ground. Transporting water from the roots, on through the trunk, and up to the leaves is a challenge. Unlike in animals, a tree’s vascular system has no heart; there is no pump of any kind. Water is not pushed up the tree. Instead, it is pulled from above: water molecules tend to stick to each other and to other substances. When moisture evaporates from the surface of a leaf, it pulls along a column of water that extends all the way back to the roots. The water is pulled from the soil to replace what was lost above. As a tree grows taller, it becomes increasingly difficult to get water to its topmost leaves. Eventually, this leads to drought stress and reduced photosynthesis and growth.

All trees have to deal with this reality of physics, but those lanky redwoods deal with it better than any others. And according to some researchers, their superiority may derive largely from the fog in which they live. Gigantic redwoods exist only in a narrow band along a few hundred coastal miles in northern California. They grow in wet temperate forests in steep valleys, buffered against wind, and receive well over 100 inches of precipitation annually. These forests are marked by consistently cool, moist conditions and an abundance of fog.

Evidently, redwoods are able to absorb water from fog directly into their leaves. According to the National Park Service, stewards of the tallest of them, fog accounts for 40 percent of a redwood’s moisture intake. So instead of fighting against the physics of pulling hundreds of gallons of water from the soil through the tree’s complex – and really long – vasculature, they avail themselves of a more handy source. With access to water in the fog right near the leaves, the plumbing problem becomes something of a plumbing advantage.(northernwoodlands)

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Content Published October 24, 2020

Liberty Bell and Reflection

The Liberty Bell, previously called the State House Bell or Old State House Bell, is an iconic symbol of American independence, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Once placed in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House (now renamed Independence Hall), the bell today is located in the Liberty Bell Center in Independence National Historical Park. The bell was commissioned in 1752 by the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly from the London firm of Lester and Pack (known subsequently as the Whitechapel Bell Foundry), and was cast with the lettering "Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof", a Biblical reference from the Book of Leviticus (25:10). The bell first cracked when rung after its arrival in Philadelphia, and was twice recast by local workmen John Pass and John Stow, whose last names appear on the bell. In its early years, the bell was used to summon lawmakers to legislative sessions and to alert citizens about public meetings and proclamations. (Wikipedia)

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Content Published October 24, 2020

Independence Hall

Independence Hall is the building where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted. It is now the centerpiece of the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The building was completed in 1753 as the Pennsylvania State House, and served as the capitol for the Province and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania until the state capital moved to Lancaster in 1799. It became the principal meeting place of the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1783 and was the site of the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787.

A convention held in Independence Hall in 1915, presided over by former US president William Howard Taft, marked the formal announcement of the formation of the League to Enforce Peace, which led to the League of Nations and eventually the United Nations. The building is part of Independence National Historical Park and is listed as a World Heritage Site.

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Content Published October 24, 2020

A sea of COVID chairs

Friday, October 23rd, 2020 - A sea of more than 860 white chairs sat empty on Independence Mall for eight hours. Each one symbolizing 10 people who’ve died from COVID-19 in Pennsylvania this year and will never sit with their loved ones again ( Philadelphia Inquirer)

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